‘The study side of Freemasonry’

    

“Masonry has no use for a blind, stupid devotion vouchsafed her by wooden men who do not know why they serve her, but what she loves is the intelligent loyalty of thinking men who have a reason for the faith that is in them.”

Delmar Duane Darrah

Grand Master

Grand Lodge of Illinois

1912

My favorite Masonic activity anymore is just staying home and reading our history—the more obscure, the better. The news Thursday of Masonic University reopening in New York (see post below) reminded me of a favorite speech from the past. More than a century ago, the Grand Lodge of Illinois had a remarkable Grand Master. Delmar Darrah was a professor of elocution at Wesleyan, so I’m not surprised he delivered first rate oratory. (Are there professors of elocution today? I can’t imagine it.) Maybe you remember him from this previous Magpie post.

I’m a huge fan of the style of rhetoric employed so often by Masonry’s leaders during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We just don’t hear eloquence of that timbre or on that frequency any more. Maybe because there aren’t elocution professors.

MW Delmar Darrah

At the Grand Lodge of Illinois’ seventy-third Annual Communication at Chicago in October 1912, MW Darrah spoke of many things, but doted specifically on what he termed “Intellectual Masonry.” In addition to the unflinching delivery, the content of this excerpt of his speech merits revisiting 113 years later.

Intellectual Masonry.

There is no subject connected with our distinguished fraternity in which I am more deeply interested than that of the study side of Freemasonry. No similar organization on the face of the earth can boast of traditions as ancient, of usages and landmarks as universally known, of symbolism so sparkling with brightest jewels, of philosophies both ancient and modern; of a ritual in sentiment as lofty, in diction as eloquent, and so universally spoken. And yet, the institution is but little understood by even its most devoted members.

There are many of us who can recite our ritual from Alpha to Omega without the omission of a word or syllable, unconscious of the fact that behind the play of words lie concealed thoughts and meanings which invite our investigation and well repay us for our research. Too many Masons perform their duty like the religious devotee who recites his catechism in mechanical style, and arises from his knees conscious of but one fact—that of a duty performed.

The demand of the hour is not for men who can recite the ritual but for men who know what that ritual means, and who are willing to display its teachings in their daily lives and conduct. I quote from a distinguished writer: “Masonry has no use for a blind, stupid devotion vouchsafed her by wooden men who do not know why they serve her, but what she loves is the intelligent loyalty of thinking men who have a reason for the faith that is in them.”

A ritual is merely the vehicle by which we convey to the minds and hearts of men moral precepts and great truths; if it has for its object any other purpose, it is merely sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Our ritual is an exposition surfeited with excellent maxims of right living. We in Illinois acknowledge no superiors in the matter of ritualistic perfection. In the midst of our present ecstacy of ritualism it might be well to inquire whether our oral moralizing tends to better living or is it merely a revel in fine words and agreeable rhetoric. It is one thing to talk Masonry, but to think it and act it is quite another. There is a vast difference between Masonry of the tongue and Masonry of the deed. The whole trouble with our present system is that it does not teach men to think but to remember. We will never have better Masons until we have more thinking Masons, for the thinker is he who strives to awaken from the dream of life in which the multitude pass a listless existence.

It is a fact that the burden of our lodges is today carried forward by about ten percent of the membership. The greatest problem which confronts us is how to interest the 90 percent of dues-paying non-attending members. So long as we offer them nothing but a program of degrees ground out by rule and rote we can hope for little improvement.

I am a supporter of the study side of Masonry and believe that we should exert our best endeavors toward an understanding of our history, traditions and symbolism. Believing such to be a necessary part of the education of every Mason, I arranged with the Board of Grand Examiners for the introduction of two thirty-minute talks at our schools upon the subject of history and symbolism.

While the innovation was not well received by some of our ritualistic brethren, I believe that some good was accomplished in bringing about a better understanding of the history of the fraternity, as well as stimulating many brethren toward individual Masonic study and research.

I would not for one moment advocate the abatement of the diligence exerted toward correctly teaching our ritual, nor would I abandon our present system of schools, but I would urge that means be adopted that will bring to the Masons of Illinois a better understanding of the institution of which they are members. Doubtless this can best be accomplished in the lodges themselves, by the formation of study clubs, the promotion of lectures and addresses by competent brethren, and by reading Masonic books. The subject is well worthy of serious thought and I leave it to the earnest consideration of the progressive Masons of this great state.